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The Center for Artificial Indifference

Laugh, Think, and Cry…

July 13th, 2007 | Category: Games We Play, Realities

[This is a re-publishing of my post of July 14, 2005. The message and the appeal of Jimmy Valvano were so powerful and moving that it bears repeating occasionally.]

This week ESPN Radio held their annual fund raiser for The V Foundation, the cancer research organization named in memory of Jimmy V (Valvano for readers who are not sports fans), the dynamic NC State basketball coach who died of cancer in 1993. Jimmy V set the gold standard for tenacity, passion and vision in the way he lived his life and in the way he died.

Yesterday I heard excerpts from some of his memorable speeches made in the final weeks and months before he died. While best known for his repetitive exhortation to “Never give up”, this remarkable man also regularly challenged his audience, be it a crowded banquet hall or his team in the locker-room before a game, to do three things each day: Laugh, Think, and Cry. Good advice then, much needed advice today. Thank You and Rest in Peace, Jimmy V! You will not be soon forgotten!

8 Comments so far

  1. Joy July 13th, 2007 9:59 pm

    What a great guy Jimmy V….brave, inspirational…and gone way too soon. Thanks Winston.

  2. Jean July 13th, 2007 10:39 pm

    sounds like he was a helluva man.

  3. Liz July 14th, 2007 1:52 am

    I don’t know: if I thought more I probably wouldn’t laugh so much!

  4. Elsie July 14th, 2007 6:16 am

    I understand the laugh and think part, but why would/should anyone cry each day?

  5. Jean July 14th, 2007 12:22 pm

    maybe he meant that we should let something touch us so deeply every day that tears would be shed. In appreciation, in love, in happiness… not just sorrow.
    Just my guess…

  6. Winston July 14th, 2007 2:10 pm

    Thanks to all of you for your comments. Elsie, I believe Jean nailed it precisely. Jimmy V was a very emotional man who was not afraid to cry, whether from sorrow or pain or happiness. Many men never want to be caught crying for any reason. I got over that long ago. If I feel like crying, the tears come and I do not try to hold them back. I for one, do not believe that a weakness.

  7. Elsie July 15th, 2007 5:52 am

    Well there I go again, with my sexist thinking. Had the quote been from a woman, I would have understood right away. It’s hard to imagine a man encouraging crying. It certainly would take a strong man to do so. I, too, believe it does not show weakness.

  8. Kay Dennison July 15th, 2007 5:56 pm

    May a gracious God be good to him!!!!!! What a great man he was!!!